Linca - Investment Notes
At Motion Capital, we're thrilled to be leading Linca's NZ$7m seed raise. Linca is a New Zealand-founded company commercialising a modular, low-cost technology that recovers battery-grade lithium, cobalt and nickel from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries. It is being spun out of Auckland's Mint Innovation and is now led full-time by Dr Ollie Crush, Mint's co-founder and Chief Science Officer, now CEO of Linca.
When batteries reach end-of-life, they're shredded into a powder called black mass, a mix of nickel, cobalt and lithium intermingled at the atomic level. Refining it back into battery-grade material is difficult chemistry, and over 80% of that capacity sits in China. Most Western black mass is shipped offshore, losing critical metals and value along the way.
As end-of-life EV batteries arrive in volume, Western governments are onshoring critical-mineral supply and OEMs need domestic sources of recycled metal. Linca has secured a £8.1m UK Government grant alongside Jaguar Land Rover and the University of Warwick's WMG, providing non-dilutive capital and a direct pathway into a major automaker's battery supply chain.
This raise takes Linca from pilot to demonstration scale. We’re excited by Linca’s differentiated process led by people who can execute it. Ollie and the Linca team are an exceptional group that we are proud to be backing.
